Today I dragged my weary body out of bed at 5am in order to go skate very quickly in circles. Seems kinda pointless, doesn't it? Especially since I didn't even skate all that quickly.

I had trouble getting motivated this morning. I dinked around the house, and didn't make it to the arena until 5:45. I tried several times to talk myself out of going, and even almost succeeded. Even while walking in, I was kind of hoping not to see any speedskaters, so that I could just turn around and go home.

When I got on the ice and started warming up, I felt out of shape and uncoordinated. We were doing some endurance training -- skate for 4 minutes, rest for 4 minutes, then repeat. Endurance is really hard for me; I'm just not good at it yet. This means that endurance training is probably a really good idea, but it also means much suffering. I felt like I was a bad skater and that I was wasting my time. I was tired and moody.

After the endurance stuff, we did a relay. Each skater did two laps before the next person takes over, and you have 2 or 3 teammates to rest during before you have to skate your two laps again. Now, two laps is perfect for me! I have such the sprinter's metabolism. I can go nice and fast, and before I get worn out, it's the next person's turn. Then I get (barely) just enough of a break before doing it again. I really like relays.

I felt much happier once we started the relay. One of the advanced skaters even came up to me and said, "You're skating really fast." I felt so much better about myself, and I felt like there was hope for me as a speedskater. I had fun. I'm glad we ended with the relays, not more endurance!

It's gonna be a long day though....tonight is my 11pm to midnight synchro practice!!!